How Do You Stay Fit and Healthy as a Designer?

Being a designer isn’t the most active job in these modern days of the Internet. We tend to spend hours on end sat staring at a computer screen, our most strenuous movement often being a trip to the coffee machine. So how do designers look after their bodies and aim to maintain a fit and healthy lifestyle? I asked a bunch of designers and developers to share some insight into their own fitness regimes, goals and habits.

Ashley Baxter

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

I have a terrible back, though it’s hard to say its a direct correlation of sitting at a computer all day, but I’d assume so seeing as I’m only 24. Also, my job has quite a high level of responsibility with an entire business riding on my shoulders, therefore I have been known to feel stressed from time to time!

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

Last year I hired an ex-army personal trainer after 23 years of general inactivity (I would have said I was quite a lazy person). He taught me the whole ‘mind over matter’ mentality of working out; pushing yourself beyond your limit, ignoring your body’s weaknesses and pushing through the pain. After my contract was up with my personal trainer, I moved from the countryside to the city and joined a gym.

I’m knackered after my workout in the evening and I get a great night’s sleep because of it. Also, I feel happy within myself knowing I’m taking care of my body so I can work longer, work harder and achieve the things I want to with my business. I really love the balance I have with my lifestyle right now; work during the day, gym in the evening, and socialising at weekends. I’d urge anyone who isn’t exercising to incorporate it into their lifestyle, it quickly gets addictive.

David Airey

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

I’m awaiting referral to a physiotherapist because I get regular tension headaches, and think it might be related to strain in my neck and shoulders, perhaps due to time at a computer.

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

I try to get my five-a-day (fruit/veg). I might not always, but I reckon more often than not I do.

One of the bedrooms in my house is used as a mini-gym with foam mats, a 13-position bench, good kettle bells, and weights. I’m trying to go out running more often rather than cardio in the house. Easier said than done.

When working at a computer I usually take breaks every hour for at least for five or ten minutes to give my eyes a break. There comes a point when I can tell my eyes are strained from staring into a monitor.

Paul Boag

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

I have spoken quite openly on a number of occasions about negative affect my career has had on my health. Although not directly related to being a designer, I have had health problems related to the stress of running my own business.

Some time ago I was diagnosed with stress-related depression that was having an impact on me physically and emotionally. I suffered from stomach problems, sleep issues and a number of other physical complaints.

As web designers we like to live our lives at a manic pace, constantly running to keep up with the continual advances in technology and this emerging medium. It is hardly surprising that this has an impact on our health.

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

In the last year I have completely changed the way I work in order to take better care of my body and mental well-being. Thanks to applications like FitFu I started exercising for the first time in my life and now attend the gym three times a week.

I’ve also reduced my consumption of caffeine and generally have a much healthier diet.

I have also reduced the number of hours I work and take a lot more regular breaks. I also now avoid using technology immediately before bedtime and that has helped my sleeping pattern is considerably.

I have come to take my health very seriously as I know that if I do not ultimately damage my business, my family and myself.

Marc Perel

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

Working long hours behind a desk is a downward spiral.

Obviously sitting the entire day doesn’t exactly turn you into a super model, and the more you do so, the weaker you get, the worse your back/poster gets and the fatter your gut grows. Add to that, the unhealthier you are, the less you wanna do exercise.

Extra note: When we were dev’ing Obox Themes and even a few months afterwards, we worked 12-18hrs a day for 3 months. We didn’t leave the office before dark for the entire period. At the end I’d gained a some weight, lost all fitness, and looked like a ghost and felt unhealthy. Wasn’t ideal.

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

Luckily I live near an artificially lit promenade, so I even when I get home late I can go for a 30 minute run twice/three times a week.

I also try to ride my bike before work twice a week (which is tough in winter, it’s still dark at 6am), and exercise both days over the weekend. I also do some push ups before bed which helps a lot with my poster when working.

John O’Nolan

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

Becoming a full time designer definitely impacted my health negatively, but the full extent of this didn’t really become evident until I went freelance. Early negative changes included astigmatism, periodic RSI and occasional back problems – but while I was working for an agency I still got a decent amount of exercise traveling to and from work every day, as well as meeting colleagues for social engagements.

When I went freelance, I gained about 40lbs (~20kg) in the space of 12 months to the point where I was seriously overweight. The freelance lifestyle, all too easily, involved a mere ten steps from bedroom to office and back again each day. I could often go several days at a time without leaving the house at all – after all, I had no real reason to. I was working hard.

The most dangerous aspect of all this was that it was very easy to slip into, it didn’t feel like I was doing anything wrong. Thankfully – those days are behind me.

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

In December 2010 I purchased a copy of “The 4 Hour Body” by Tim Ferriss, following his weight loss diet I lost 40lbs in the space of 8 weeks. For reference, that’s going from a Large tshirt size to a Small, and dropping two jeans sizes – right back to where I was before going freelance, returning to a healthy and normal BMI.

Since then I’ve only had to make small changes to my lifestyle to keep the weight off – most of them involve leaving my home office as often as I can. Either to socialise, or work from a remote location.

Sitting behind a computer for 18 hours a day is too easy, we all need to get off Twitter and go for a walk more often.

Veerle Pieters

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

The only part of change in my health that could be related to being designer is my eyesight. I feel that one of my eyes has a problem with being nearsighted, so things in a distance are blurry. I have been told that that is the toll from staring on a screen so long without much looking into the distance. I’ve been close to a burnout but luckily I prevented that with biking.

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

No matter how busy I am with client work I always try to maintain my schedule of two 2,5h and one 40min bike rides in a week. I need that to clear my head and release some stress that way. I have a quality ergonomic office chair because I spend so much time behind my desk. I’m not on a diet but I pay attention to what I eat. I just cook 5x a week with fresh vegetables but I’m not denying myself anything.

Garry Aylott

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

Since having a desk job I have definitely noticed that weight gain was the main health issue. Especially as a designer we tend to work some long hours sometimes and I often find if I have a busy day at work and then come home and carry on working if I have a personal project on, I feel like I haven’t done anything other than be glued to my chair. This is obviously isn’t good from for a number of reasons, weight gain being the main one.

I’ve also noticed a problem that’s developed with my eye sight. Since I’ve been a designer and have been working at a screen all day, it’s taking a slight toll on my eyes and now there’s a good chance I’ll need to wear glasses full time at my next eye exam.

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

The best thing I’ve found to combat the weight gain and potential RSI problems is to get out of the chair a few times through out the day and walk around. Even if it’s just a walk round the block or the local park, anything that gets you outside and active. I also find drinking plenty of water or juice through out the day can help too. If it gets you away from the desk, even to pee, that’s a good thing! It also helps your concentration levels too.

I have a pretty basic workstation setup with no fancy ergonomic stuff. It does work for some people but as long as my chair is at the correct height and the back rest is at the correct angle for me, that does the trick. If you can invest in a decent chair as soon as possible, it will be your best friend!

The main thing though – get away from your desk and be active for twice a day minimum.

Chris Coyier

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

I’ve been a computer nerd for so long that I can’t pinpoint any particular “change” in health, but I’m sure that my sitting in a chair for hours upon hours every single day of my life has a lot to do with my being overweight.

I also had a bit of a battle with RSI a few years ago. Loads of pain. Tried lots of stuff. Made some changes (like an ergonomic keyboard and trackball) and it essentially cleared up entirely. Knock on wood. I feel like I just got lucky there.

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

At one point in my life a number of years back I was at the healthiest I have ever been, and it was because I was on schedule of getting to the gym every single day around lunchtime. It was great breaking up the workday like that. Lots of circumstances changed, I was unable to do that anymore, and things went downhill. Fortunately more circumstances are changing again in the upcoming months and I’ll be back on my gym-at-lunch schedule and I’m very much looking forward to it.

Marc Lloyd

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

I seem to get a few back problems from sitting down all day as well as RSI in my right hand/arm

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

I train twice a week at the local climbing wall, do free weights and finger board training at home as well as climbing outside at the weekends. This seems to help with the tight back although I’m still prone to back injuries which I think is related to my job.

I eat fairly healthily as well and generally get my 5 a day :)

I have a vertical mouse which seems to have sorted the RSI but I think the fingerboard training may have a positive affect on this as well.

Kari Lane

Name: Kari Lane

Twitter: @Kari_Lane

Website: http://www.karilane.ie

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

Stress is definitely a big one. I’ve been a little bit lethargic and also tightness in shoulders and back from hunching over the keyboard.

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

I try get outdoors as much as possible and avoid watching TV and surfing the web when im not working. That way I stay away from staring at screens all day & all night. I make sure I exercise three/four times a week which would normally involve either 30-40min jog, 1.30min cycle, kayaking, surfing or horse riding. Diet is important too, can get into bad habits when sitting at the desk for long sessions, plenty of water and fruit when I can!

Phil Rannard

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

Over the years of being a designer I did start to notice weight gain, general tiredness and my eyesight has definitely become worse. I used to also suffer from a really sore wrist on my mouse-using hand to the point it was painful to work, which I think was the beginning of RSI.

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

Now, I try to eat relatively healthy (most of the time), I also purposely walk a few miles a day as part of my daily commute to work and try to go swimming a few times a week. I’ve found this has helped with the weight gain and also helps me have more energy for the day.

As for the sore wrist I made sure I got a better mouse, a mouse mat with a wrist support, a better chair and desk. Thankfully this seems to have stopped me suffering from a painful wrist.

As for my eyesight, I try to have regular breaks throughout the day (which doesn’t always happen) in which I go outside to give my eyes a rest. Unfortunately I think my eyes have deteriorated a bit too much now so will probably have to wear glasses soon.

Peter Marano

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

I notice when i have a lot of work to do or deadlines to meet for my college work i tend to eat a lot, do less exercise even just walking. In fact if i do walk its downstairs to get more food to deal with the stress. As it was my Final Major Project at college it got really stressful near to the end of it which made me quite grumpy and very snappy at people. I think it had a lot to do with the fact that these grades i get determine if i get into my course i have applied for at uni and i have done 3 years of college to get into uni so its stressful to know that it could be a waste of 3 years if it don’t go right for me.

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

I try to work out at home when i can, go for a walk in spare time with my girlfriend. Some days i will try and cut back on the junk food i eat and restrict myself to one chocolate or unhealthy food a day. I found also having a good air ventilation in your work space or even a window open helps to keep your mind more carm therefore lowering the chances of eating more, helps keep your head clear and it does make you feel a bit more happier.

Tom O’Malley

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

When I became a designer nearly five years ago, It was about 6 months or so down the line that I noticed i’d started to pack on a few extra pounds. Being that I sit in my chair for long periods of time and having a daily step count of about 100, I was bound to put on weight. My Eyes have also deteriorated during this time – I didn’t actually wear glasses whilst at uni, however, I now have a pair by my side most of the time. I can live with the glasses, I couldn’t live with getting a belly!

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

I’ve tried many ways to try and get in shape whilst working as a designer. At one of my jobs, I actually replaced my office chair with one of those swiss balls (apparently these are good for engaging the core and help maintain good posture). I’m a bit if a sloucher so that didn’t last.

I’ve now found a great balance between design and Health and Fitness. I go to the gym, 4 times a week before work at 6.30am. I find this is a great way to start off the day and it really helps to clear my head. I always need a coffee about 4pm though!

My love of fitness has since caught on around the office. Designers and developers now go to circuits together after work every tuesday and one of the dev’s has since become my gym buddy. So, a nice healthy creative office over here!

Jinny Ursell

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

Yes, RSI in right hand that uses mouse.
The need for prescription glasses
Injuries through sport taking longer to heal as sedentary for a lot of the day.

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

I try to exercise 3 times a day. For mental wellbeing working on a computer all day can be quite solitary so I like to pick sports that involve interacting with others. Football, badminton, tennis, fitness classes etc.

Exercise can even include a walk to the shops but as long as I get out and stretch my legs, I feel I can work much better.

The only problem with being a designer with an active lifestyle is that you’re going from two extremes. This can result in injury which I’ve discovered myself recently.

It’s best to keep a balance and when I am fit and active again I will make sure that I keep stretching and mobile during the times I’m sitting so I don’t get injured when trying to keep fit.

Fitness in this kind of job is just as important mentally as it is physically and I would struggle to work without it.

Zoe Ingram

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

Yes absolutely! My lower back has become incredibly sore from sitting all day long.

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

The human body isn’t supposed to be seated for such long periods of time. I have been doing Pilates and physio to strengthen and mobilize joint and muscles that get locked from sitting and it has helped so much. One thing I’d recommend for anyone who sits all day long is to do hip flexor stretches because they get all scrunched up and shortened from sitting and butt firming exercises such as squats/lunges (because they get stretched all day from sitting).

Getting up from your desk every now and then throughout the day helps too and I even saw someone create a desk on top of a treadmill which would be great. Can you imagine every design agency/company full of treadmills instead of desks & chairs?

Matt Burton

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

Yes, due to a very high stress, long hour job I put on nearly five stone – already overweight the lack of exercise due to long hours. I also smoked like a trooper most of which I put down to the stress.

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

I’ve recently changed jobs and taken a pay cut to work less hours, under less stress and committed to a massive change of lifestyle in regards to healthy eating, smoking and exercise. I have lost 6 stone been smoke free for eighteen months and become more obsessed with exercise than stupid pixels

Tim Wills

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

When I’m really busy (with engaging work) its hard to drag myself away from the screen and then my exercise regime suffers, so generally I blame my work for my putting on weight!

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

I work from home so I’m “lucky” that I can fit in exercise whenever there’s a suitable break. I bought a cross-trainer machine that now sits in my home office, so I can quickly hop on it after work, or at lunchtime. Being in the room there’s the added benefit of watching a movie online, while I exercise. Eventually I guess I could get a touch screen and do some work while I sweat!

Danny Keane

Have you noticed any change in your health that may be related to your work as a Designer?

Over the past year or so I’ve paid close attention to my health and fitness as I know that for most of the day I’m spent sat down in front of a computer screen. I think that its very important to have some form of exercise at least once a day. Not only is it good for keeping your body healthy but also your mind; it’s important to switch off from work mode and actually relax.

Due to the nature of our work, its very easy (especially for freelancers) to overwork. It’s like a domino effect, we start to get tired, stress and frustration starts to build up because we are tired, productivity slums and the next thing we know we realise we haven’t eaten anything because we’ve been too busy.

What steps do you take to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?

I’m sure we all know people use the excuse “I’m to busy” or “I don’t have time to exercise” and I guess we can all be guilty of this sometimes but I feel it is important to make time to help improve health. It doesn’t have to be a chore, do the things you like to do and most importantly find out what works for you.

I try to keep fairly active throughout the whole week I hit the gym at least five-six times a week for at around 2 hours a day before setting out on my commute to work. I do this because not only do I enjoy it but because it helps me clear my mind, release my stress and frustration so that I have a fresh head on my shoulders every day I sit down to work.

If I were to give any tips to help improve ones health and fitness:

– Eating healthily
Eating a relatively good diet throughout the day, keeps you full of energy and helps improve your concentration and cognitive ability.

– NEVER skip breakfast!
No matter how late I’m running I always try to eat something, your body needs energy to kick start its functions especially in the morning. Stick to your whole grains these will release slow carbohydrates that will help keep you fuller for longer.

– Set goals and keep track of your progress
This helps keep you focused and motivated exercising and keeping fit. There’s no better feeling knowing you’ve broken a personal best, or have achieved something you might never thought possible.

– Make it fun
Find things you enjoy doing, exercising does have to be boring. Don’t think of it as a chore, think of it as a tool; a utility if you like, to relieve stress and tension.

– Don’t be afraid to try something new
This links closely to the point above but don’t be afraid to try something new. It helps give you a different out look on exercising, there are so many variables you can change to help find what works for you. Try different training methods, training with friends or even playing different sports. By doing so you’re learning more about yourself and how you want to keep fit.

– Drink plenty of water
Probably one of the most important points of all, make sure your drinking plenty of water not just when your exercising but in general. Water not only quenches a thirst but it also helps increase productivity. By keeping hydrated we are giving our body exactly what it needs in order to function to the best of its ability.

– Stay consistent
If you want to see the results you need to keep consistent!

thanks for this article! it's really an important thing to talk about. I neglected my health a lot in the past, then I had sciatica which is very painful, due to sitting for long periods of time. if you want to get back into a fitness routine and don't know where to start, the Leslie Sansone workout dvds are great. but you should probably get outside if you can.

Every single day I workout at the golds gym. I only eat low carb foods that will help me stay in shape. Cardio is also very important, a 30 minute walk/jog/run is healthy for your body. Drinking water is the best thing you can do as well. If you are drinking sweet tea, soda, juice, over sugared coffee, and any other thing that is not water its very bad for you. Sure your argument might be that it has vitamins, and you are right. But it does not have much nutrition to offset or even balance the bad stuff in it.

Great post – something that isn't talked about much in the design/dev community. I'm a runner and a biker and I've been using the runkeeper app for iPhone to keep track and challenge myself. There's quite a few other designers/devs out there that use this (that I also follow on twitter). Would be great to see more people being active!

For everyone who's suffering eye fatigue, I highly recommend getting a pair of dedicated computer-glasses. I've been wearing a pair of Gunnars for 18 mos. and they've noticeably reduced eye strain. I have yellow lenses, which I remove when selecting color palettes. I think Gunnar offers a clear version for designers who work heavily in Illustrator or Photoshop. http://gunnars.com

The other tool that helps me avoid RSI is a Wacom tablet.

I'm seriously considering investing in a hydraulic computer table so I can alternate between sitting and standing. They're pricey, but sitting all day isn't good.

Since I work from home, I take frequent breaks to get tea refills (and pee!). I'll do simple leg lifts, stretching, or use hand weights while the tea steeps. Other exercise includes dog walks–they're VERY demanding about getting their daily walk. ;-)

I worked for myself for 8 years so setting aside time for exercise was pretty easy for me to do. However, in May 2010 I signed on with a company as an in-house dev and totally screwed not only my exercise routine but also my eating plan. Thankfully, I'm getting back on track now on both.

I've discovered working out early in the morning is a great way to start your day. I put my iPhone in my armband, pop open Runkeeper and go outside and run. Luckily we have a gym in our building so weights and showers are easy to get to as well.

A big thing is simply making it a part of your normal routine. Another challenge though is eating right. It's easy to hit the vending machine for a soda or pick the unhealthy option when you go out to lunch with the guys/gals.

The empty calories and huge amounts of sugar in soda alone can screw up anybody's path to becoming a more fit individual.

Find somebody that you can team up with to keep each other in check. Accountability goes a long way.

I find something I've found improved on is swapping to dark colour pallet in my coding window. I use Sublime Text 2 and it's got a nice grey background with a great array of colours for syntax highlighting. I never knew how much strain I was putting on my eyes until I made the swap.

This can definitely be a challenge. I have long-term problems with my back and I need to move around fairly regularly, otherwise I stiffen up and really suffer from it. I use a reminder on my phone which also prompts me to drink water. I just get up and walk around for 5 mins about every 1.5 hours. I like to take a 20-min walk around lunchtime, too.

I'm surprised so many people can stay motivated for the gym, or solo jogging. They do feel good, but are also pretty repetitive and 2D dimensional (or 1D in the case of most gym machines).

Playing an actual sport is a lot easier to stay on track with. If you commit to fixtures you're less likely to not bother going when you don't feel like it, and a bit of competition can help you push yourself further.

I usually jog 2-3 times a week. Believe it or not, it's part of my creative process; when you are running you are thinking about work anyway, so it's a good way to get past the "too lazy to work out" stage. I also try to play football (gridiron for the Yanks) but haven't lately.

Really. Below links to an important article on the health benefits of standing up at work – "shocking study in the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Scientists at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana analyzed the lifestyles of more than 17,000 men and women over about 13 years, and found that people who sit for most of the day are 54 percent more likely to die of heart attacks.

That’s right—I said 54 percent! " Even more shocking – "Sitting is an independent risk factor."

I work for a health and fitness company as a designer, http://anytimehealth.com and find that using the website I work on everyday to have better health makes it easier. I am always willing to help out fellow designers, let me know if you want access to our site!

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